The Holidays in New England
by Ken Mathews






Halloween is the starting point in a series of events which transition us from autumn into the “holiday season”. The week after Halloween is host to Election Day, Veterans Day’s the following week, followed by one “normal” week - then, presto! It’s Thanksgiving.

There’s something unique about Thanksgiving here. This is where it began back in 1620. Thanksgiving should be a day to count our blessings and, at least, reflect on our good fortune. Our society has changed in the past half century. When I was a teenager, nothing was open on Thanksgiving Day, not even a gas station or donut shop. Some of the small variety stores were open in the morning for last minute emergency items, but not past noon! It was a family day, for almost everybody. It was a day to stay at home and entertain family or travel to gather at the home of relatives. Somewhere “greed” and “taking” have crept into the picture. Restaurants and big business are the culprits. Ah - a chance to grab a few more consumer dollars! So many people go shopping and/or have their Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. I guess that goes along with our artificial society. We’ve managed to take the true meaning and value out of most everything in life, including, perhaps, life itself.

Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be complete without that gigantic newspaper, stuffed full of circulars. Those retailers know when and how to get our attention. It’s competition at its best. They all open early on Friday with hourly specials and fantastic prices. Let’s see – I have to be at store A at 7:00 am, then Store B at 8:00, hoping to get to store C before they run out of their 8:00 specials, then back to Store A at 9:00, etc, etc, etc. It doesn’t work! If you’re one of the first to get into the store when they open, quickly grab your purchases and rush to the checkouts, that’s the best you can hope for. After that, no matter where you go, most of your time is spent in checkout lines.

Oh, the joy! - Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving. By noon every store has run out of everything advertised and the frenzied consumers end up waiting in checkout lines to buy items they hadn’t planned on. Isn’t it amazing how so many stores seem to find additional merchandise for those one-hour specials they ran out of . . . a couple of hours after the sale ended! And of course they were advertised as “store stock only – no rain checks”! I just love it when you wait in line at the checkout for almost an hour and, upon finally getting there, being told the special ended half an hour ago! Believe me, you wouldn’t want to be the “associate” telling me that. It’s one argument I’ll never loose . . . Did you ever tell a checkout associate with a waiting line of 20-30 customers “I want to see the store manager – here and now”.

The following three to four weeks are a special time of year for most of us. We are so busy getting ready for Christmas Day. I can honestly say - Christmas has more meaning with each passing year. I know it’s exciting for children, anticipating their gifts on Christmas Day. Over the years, it takes on a different level of meaning. The joy of giving presents becomes more important. The obvious religious significance becomes more meaningful. Time spent with family, relatives and friends becomes a large part of the joy of the season. People - at least most of them - are at their best. They are more courteous, patient and understanding than usual. This is part of the magic of Christmas.

We are so lucky here in New England. The northern portions of our most northern states grow fur balsam Christmas trees. There is no other fur tree having a similar fragrance. To us, that unique sweet smell is as much a part of Christmas as Santa Clause. Artificial trees have their place. We even have one – as a second tree. But – Christmas just isn’t the same with a “fake” tree. It makes Christmas seem more commercialized and artificial.

This is the most important season of the year for family. Children learn to appreciate Christmas by what they see, hear and otherwise experience over the years. For all of us, Christmas is a unique experience. Just as two snowflakes are not identical, Christmas for two people has differences. Sure, there’s a large body of commonality – Christmas trees, ornaments, lights, Christmas carols and stories . . . and so on. But there’s the memories a person has from all the Christmases of their past that blend together, making the season a unique personal experience. This is why it is so important to maintain family traditions, they become a part of the Christmas of our children that will be in their minds each Christmas throughout the lives.

As a child, our family had a simple tradition. Each year, without fail, we all had a large juicy navel orange in the toe of our stockings. After examining the rest of the contents in our stockings, the orange became the first food we ate on Christmas Day. For me, this became so firmly entrenched as a part of Christmas I have carried on the tradition with our children. So often, it’s the simple, little things like this that have the greatest meaning. They become an important part of what Christmas means to each of us.

So - from the bottom of my heart, and the depth of my soul, I wish you all a very happy holiday season.

“ God bless Us – every One! “

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Ken's New England Journal: Archive;
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The Simple Life
Fall in New England

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About the Author;
Introduction and Background I was born in Nashua, NH in 1948 as our country was recovering from World War II. A few days later, my parents took me home to Hollis, NH, where I lived until going off to college in 1967. My mother was a Hollis native, where my grandparents, her mother and father, lived. My Father was born in Brookline, NH, just west of Hollis. His mother, who was a widow long before I was born, lived in Brookline on the family farm. That area of Southern NH, bordered by the Nissitissett, Nashua, Souhegn and Merrimack rivers was the setting where I experienced life for my first 20 years. Hollis and Brookline were both small New England towns where everybody knew everybody, literally. Most of the people were at least third or fourth generation residents. There was no serious crime, no full time police force and for the most part, people didn’t even think about locking their house doors. There was no need.

The people, their culture and values were very conservative. The landscape, with hundreds of acres of woods, orchards and farmland, has numerous ponds and streams. The largest pond, Long Pond, eventually was renamed Silver Lake. The State of New Hampshire took over the north end of the lake in the 1950’s and made it into “Silver Lake State Park”. That was our major tourist attraction. On hot summer afternoons, particularly on weekends, it was always filled to capacity. Those were the days the “townies” stayed away.

It’s now been half a century since my very earliest memories, shaped by the rural life and culture that is rapidly becoming extinct. In my writing, every now and then, there will be traces of this culture and the values of rural Southern New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley of New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts.

Ken@boomerjournals.com